THE POWER AND THE GLORY

In my opinion, 'The Power and the Glory' is Gentle Giant's number one album. As of writing this, I bought the beautiful record on vinyl for a whopping five dollars at my go-to local record store and listened to it all the way through for the billionth time. But enough about me, let us talk about this masterpiece of a concept album. 'Proclamation' opens the album subtly, but effectively. It is also the longest track on the album, running at a moderate (for progressive rock, at least) six minutes and forty-four seconds, according to my original vinyl. This is the same length as 'Playing the Game'. The second track is 'So Sincere'. Funky, complex, and verging on math rock. It is my personal favorite song on the album. Then is 'Aspirations', the saddest song on the album. This track is beautiful, to say the least. 'Playing the Game' is one of the more accessible tracks on this album, regardless of the length. Groovy keyboards really sell this song. 'Cogs in Cogs' is my least favorite track on this album, but not for an actual reason, if you get what I mean. The only reason I dislike this song is because of the painful brevity of it all. It ends abruptly, which doesn't help. 'No God's a Man' manages to have some of the best vocal dubs in the entirety of Gentle Giant's discography. 'The Face' is arguably the most starkly political track on the album. To put this wonderful record to an end is the rocky 'Valedictory', which features an altered 'Proclamation' reprise. This ending track acts as a summarization of the album. I had a lot of good things to say about this album, but I'm not done. This concept album is quite confusing when it comes to story. Complex lyrics and no real timelines to follow, each song feels more like one singular sentiment as opposed to something akin to a chapter in a book. But, I've written enough. This is a great album in terms of music, lyrics, and conceptual themes, even if the latter was not executed perfectly. I hope everyone can find something in this album like I did. I even managed to get a friend into this album by listening to it with them. Have fun listening.

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